Elysianic Memories
by d.honey
Summary: Between incarnations, shitennou travel to Elysian to relearn what they thought they knew, to find out if they're strong enough to discover what they need to know & humble enough to do what they need to do, to make it back to where they're supposed to be
1. place

_Where do the shitennou go in between incarnations? What do they know and what do they need to learn to make it back to where they're supposed to be?_

I once wondered about where Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and eventually Kunzite are after they are killed by the senshi, but before they appear as advising rocks. They become rocks after their bodies disintegrate, but they don't start talking for a bit. So, this is me playing with the idea that their souls had to go somewhere just to exist & to come to a couple realizations.

This is NOT a fic.

This will not _become_ a fic - at least it's not very likely. Mostly because, while I like the idea, it's too underdeveloped itself as an idea & I'm not quite sure how interesting it would make as reading material. Either way, Elysianic Memories is a universe I've created as a backdrop to some of my drabbles, including the ones I'm using for _Twisted_. In fact, the idea was initially prompted by one of the themes. And other themes fit, so in they go.

* * *

Where exactly had Jadeite landed himself?

* * *

Theme: Place (#80) - theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Drama/Humor  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

Jadeite stretched and scrunched his face, opening and closing his mouth at the flavor in his mouth. He blinked his eyes.

Things were . . . confusing. Was he confused? He supposed. But really, he was more… Well. No, confused worked pretty well.

He looked about him. He was in a green field. A beautiful green field, the color that anyone only sees in pictures - even people who supposedly live in those places. And everything seemed to have a slight sparkle. Like someone had added a dash of glitter to the place.

Interesting.

He stood, dusting off his pants and wondering if this was heaven.

It was about that time that the altar boy showed up. Jadeite supposed he wasn't really an altar boy, but he certainly looked it, with his loose white pants and crisp flowing white shirt. Jadeite could not be certain, but he was relatively sure that Christians didn't believe in unicorns, which was what the altar boy must have been at least part of.

Fortunately, he was not a Christian. Which was just as well because didn't Christians believe heaven involved living in the clouds?  
He always wondered if that meant larger people couldn't go to heaven. Maybe this was the place where they lost weight before ascending to heaven. He looked at the altar boy whom he decided to associate with a nutrition expert and figured that this place could certainly be vegan.

The nutritionist smiled. "Jadeite."

Jadeite nodded. He supposed he should be afraid, but he remembered dying very clearly. One does not easily forget being burnt to a crisp. It was a very painful experience, and Jadeite had a very good memory.

He figured he was in Heaven, or Purgatory, or the official gym of the afterlife. Either way, he felt he had nothing to fear. This was certainly not Hell, so there you have it.

The boy seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but Jadeite stood silently and evaluated the boy instead.

"Do you know where you are?" the boy with golden eyes asked.

Jadiete had never seen golden eyes before. Golden hair. What was normally called golden skin. People had golden smiles, though Jadeite that that one was a bit of a stretch.

But never golden eyes.

"Purgatory?" he chanced, not wanting to be so presumptuous as to decide he'd landed himself in heaven.

The boy laughed, and it was a boy's laughter, clear and high and innocent and true. "Not quite."

"Welcome, Jadeite, to Elysian."

* * *

end

Random: This was written while I was finishing _Good Omens_ by Neil Gaiman. It is a book that only be described as snarky & that's why the tone is so different from what I usually write.

PS. Read the book. So great.


	2. virtual reality

…"existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name"…

* * *

Theme: Virtual Reality (#88) - theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Drama  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

"Welcome, Jadeite, to Elysian."

He said it with grandeur, but the meaning was lost on Jadeite. Realizing this, the white-haired boy who reminded Jadeite of Kunzite and caused Jadeite to wonder how Kunzite was faring, said with obvious childish dissatisfaction, "You have no idea what that means, do you?"

Jadeite shook his head, neither embarrassed or arrogant.

The boy frowned. Clearly, Jadeite had a _lot_ more remembering to do than the boy had been made to understand.

"Oh. Well." And at this point, the boy stopped. How does one explain the Elysian Fields to someone who thinks he's in purgatory?

"Typically people think it's a kind of heaven," he said slowly. "Only, for certain people."

"And I'm one of the 'chosen' ones?" Jadeite asked dryly. How was he ever going to understand where he was if the kid was the only one around to talk to him?

The 'kid' frowned. "I didn't say it was heaven. I said people _think_ it's a heaven."

"Well," said Jadeite, impatience lacing his words, "how about you tell me what it _is_."

"No need to be rude. I was just trying to give you background information."

They stood in silence for a moment. "What do you remember, Jadeite?"

"What's your name, kid?"

The altar-boy-nutritionist-unicorn-child bristled. "This body is older than yours!" Jadeite was unmoved. "Helios," he answered, slightly sulking and wishing Jadeite could at least remember who Helios was.

"Okay, Helios. I remember being fried by Sailor Mars down on Earth."

"Up," Helios said distantly.

Jadeite chose to ignore the unexplained interruption. "I remember getting crispy because Queen Beryl sent me to take care of the senshi and it didn't work, so now I'm here."

Helios waited for more, and when none came, asked with disbelief, "That's it?"

"What else am I supposed to know?"

"Do you remember Endymion?"

"Queen Beryl wanted Endymion. The moon princess and her senshi have Endymion brainwashed and we were supposed to get him and heal him."

Helios held back the glaringly obvious discrepancies. "What do you remember about Endymion?"

"King of Earth, right? Or Prince? I forget which, but we worked for him before the moon captured him and then we worked with Queen Beryl to get him back."

"And before Beryl?"

Jadeite stood stupidly for a moment. "Before Beryl?"

Helios raised an already pointed eyebrow. "Yes. Your life before Beryl."

Jadeite thought hard but all he could think was, 'There was no life before Beryl.' But that this boy was asking meant that… there was.

As Jadeite's silence stretched on, Helios gently took a hold of his arm and guided him towards the temple.

The first chink in Jadeite's world had been made.

Helios hoped Jadeite would remain intact for the remainder.

* * *

end


	3. blade of grass

Jadeite's never waited impatience out

* * *

Theme: Blade of Grass (#43) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: General/slight humor  
Rating: PG

* * *

Strategically, Jadeite crept close, silent, though it was probably unnecessary, as his prey had been unconscious for several days now. Still, without his powers, Jadeite needed to release some energy, and sneakiness had always been a good remedy.

Leaning alongside Nephrite's body, far away enough to stay decent thank-you-very-much, he plucked a single piece of greenery from the soft dirt and gingerly reached out towards Nephrite's face.

Delicately, at first, he tickled the inside of Nephrite's large nose.

With no initial reaction, Jadeite figured, 'He's got a big nose.'

Having decided that, he pushed the blade less tentatively against the walls of Nephrite's nose.

Nephrite's head twitched.

Jadeite drew back jerkily, his hand shaking in anticipation.

When Nephrite did not wake up, Jadeite repeated his movements, this time persisting until Nephrite, eyes still closed, slapped Jadeite's hand away. In the process, hitting his nose slightly at the same time.

"What the hell?" His voice was groggy, he was completely disorientated, and his body hurt like hell. But he could still make out a kneeling Jadeite smirking at his discomfort.

Looking past Jadeite and then back again, Nephrite's scratchy voice asked the next logical question that occurred. "What is _that_?"

Jadeite turned in time to see Helios' wings bristle and extend, before Helios brought them under control once more, folding them and turning abruptly.

Standing and extending a hand to his fallen friend, Jadeite said, "_That_ is what's stopping us from getting out of _here_." He gestured around him indifferently.

Nephrite let his head fall back to the ground with a thud. Jadeite's tone and vagueness told him he'd be better off if he had remained indisposed.

Or at least kept his mouth shut.

* * *

end


	4. shining

He came because it calmed him

* * *

Theme: Shining (#19) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Drama-y  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

Jadeite lay awake for as long as he could, willing himself to last just a little longer every time his lids tried to shutter close.

He waited for the rustling, for the giggling, and when it came, he waited even some more.

Not really caring if the other two people in the entire god-forsaken place found him, he rose as he did every morning with the sun, except this time, the sun wasn't quite up yet.

He rose in usual Jadeite fashion and casually wandered to where he knew they were. His body still tensing occasionally so he that he had to repeatedly remind himself that he didn't have to be so guarded here.

Crouching. Sneaking. Stealth. It was all unnecessary. There were currently four people in his world. Two, he was following. And two, to reiterate, he didn't really care about.

So, he traveled the path to the destination where the two would be. Paranoia took over once more as he neared and he let it, approaching quietly and settling against a tree where he remained semi-hidden while maintaining a good view.

The maenads, nameless of course, but what else could one expect in this place, bathed with the rising of the sun every morning. Well, bathing was not actually what Jadeite would call it, as they really more frolicked in the water.

He recognized it as a callback to simpler times, when women could do that and not fear being ravished and manhandled by men who could not control themselves - or whatever it was they were afraid of.

He considered himself a healthy male, with physical desires that extended as far as, well, as far as it would for other men.

Perhaps longer.

But he didn't come to watch them for that reason. And he certainly didn't come to salute the sun. He was from Earth, thank-you-very-much.

He came because it calmed him.

And Helios let him. Because Helios knew it wasn't about the maenads, beautiful and naked though they were, and it wasn't about Jadeite's loins, which Helios had had the misfortune of viewing once upon a couple dreams, it was about Jadeite.

It was about watching a purification ritual, and therefore becoming a participant of it. It was about being around earth, in it, to reconnect to it, to re-understand it.

It wasn't about the maenads, sparkling and glistening under the waterfall. It was about the cleansing that Jadeite needed himself, that he looked on enviously every morning, not allowing himself the dignity, but allowing himself the pleasure that others were enjoying earth's properties and could appreciate them for what they were, when he had so clearly forgotten.

* * *

end


	5. secret joy

He was a simple man

* * *

Theme: Secret Joy (#29) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: General  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

He was a simple man, really.

They had known it. He had figured it out eventually.

It actually made things rather easy.

So, if Jadeite wanted to think that he was here to ogle the maenads, so be it.

He didn't see the need to correct him. Didn't recognize to what purpose it would be done.

He simply enjoyed the presence of his comrade.

Jadeite, despite all impressions and appearances, was a comrade. Even if they had never been before, circumstances deemed they be so now. To at least get away from the boy who only appeared to speak mysteriously and quite annoyingly to them.

And though he'd really rather not admit it, Nephrite really did feel a kinship with Jadeite, as someone who'd been through what he had, as someone who knew his past, who was connected to his past.

He was someone who could remind Nephrite of who he had been, before he lost himself in this hopeless paradise, filled with all the beauty and desperate loneliness Nephrite could imagine.

And if the view so happened to be water droplets rolling off of two naked maenads built for dreams, so be it.

* * *

end


	6. eyes

Another homecoming

* * *

Theme: Eyes (#10) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: General/slight humor  
Rating: PG

* * *

Zoisite moved gingerly. Venus' boomerang was far more painful than he thought possible. He groaned, not quite sure where he hurt, but rather positive that he did.

He struggled to catch his breath, which, if he remembered correctly, he had lost when Venus had . . . Had she? Yes.

When she had killed him.

He was grateful to still be breathing and decided that before he jumped to the conclusion of being alive, he would make sure he could continue breathing. With ease. Eventually.

As he lay prone on the ground, he heard voices he knew.

"How long is this going to take?" That was definitely Nephrite – impatient as always.

"Venus decimated him, you fool. Give him time." Zoisite heard the frown in Jadeite's voice, but then again, his voice always sounded like that. "He hasn't taken half the time it took you, and I eventually had to _wake_ you."

A new voice interjected. "The transition itself is sudden. When it's unexpected, it's much harder. The spirit needs time to readjust and familiarize itself with the tangible, not to mention the adjustment of the whole to the new surroundings."

The sound was young, but the words were big. And wise, Zoisite supposed. But really, it was the bigness that got to him initially.

He could no longer fight the brightness blaring outside his lids. He stretched his body flat onto the ground and slowly peeked beneath his long lashes.

He blinked his eyes wider bit by bit to accustom them to what was indeed a brilliance unmatched even in Sailor Moon's world – except for the senshi attacks, which was an exception to a lot of things, including pain tolerance.

When his eyes finally came into focus, they were met with lightened caramel eyes, set in an upside down face, directly above his.

'Venus!'

Zoisite scrambled to his feet and stretched out an arm to summon an attack.

Nothing happened.

Quickly, he tried the other arm. That failing, he glanced about quickly and saw Jadeite and Nephrite lounging about as if they belonged, no more worried about him than . . . than they had ever been.

Which was not comforting. At all.

He look to the eyes that had, to be honest, scared the crap out of him.

Upon his knees, dressed entirely in white, a boy knelt. His hands folded in his lap, his scarily bright and familiar eyes inquiring. A spiral point protruded from his forehead, and Zoisite thought he could see wings folded behind the slight back.

"Zoisite," the boy began. "Welcome back."

* * *

end


	7. snowdrop

( Endymion could bring it all back to him )

* * *

Theme: Snowdrop (#35) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Drama/Angst  
Rating: PG

* * *

He shivered violently, not wanting to go down but having nowhere else to go.

The ground below him rumbled like a stomach.

'Angrily digesting Dark Kingdom agents and a other-worldly phenomenon bent on taking over the world,' he could not help thinking.

Kunzite sighed, scuffing his shoes into the soft snow and squatting to rest his head in his hands.

How had it all gone so wrong? How had it come to this point, where only two lived? How had they managed to estrange themselves from each other?

How had they ended up in this hellhole?

Kunzite struggled to remember. What had she said? Their bodies were hers? Had there been a time when they weren't?

Kunzite could no longer recall any time before the senshi, before Beryl and Metallia, before the Arctic Circle. But he caught glimpses.

Images of a family. Of Endymion. Of enjoying Tokyo, instead of conquering it.

Ever since Sailor Moon had used the ginzuishou - had it been a trick? Was she weakening him? Or could these be memories? Certainly he wasn't born into servitude! He was one of the Shitennou; he-

A bit of snow dropped onto his sleeve. Looking up, Prince Endymion gazed at him, blankly, but with distaste. Endymion shook his own wrist delicately, and more snow flung to the ground, little peaks, barely discernable at certain angles in the immaculate frost.

The snow melted into a careless splatter and stained Kunzite's uniform darkly.

"Beryl wants you," Endymion intoned apathetically. "Now."

Kunzite looked hard at Endymion, straightening up and wringing the tightness from his limbs. If he could remember something, couldn't Endymion? If there was something to remember. Something to hold onto. Something worth fighting for.

Endymion stared back with darkened blues, somehow pale in their near blackness. His arm lifted heavily, and Kunzite watched, hypnotized. Convinced something was happening. Endymion wouldn't stare at him otherwise. Endymion wouldn't touch him otherwise. There had been something before. Endymion could bring it all back to him.

Instead, Endymion touched the middle of Kunzite's forehead briefly, where the pink stone glimmered blindingly in the sunlight.

Kunzite batted his hand away angrily and turned around.

This was no time to be messing about. Beryl had called for him.

He had work to do.

* * *

end


	8. shadow

( "We are warriors. We cannot remain sedentary." )

* * *

Theme: Shadow (#45) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Drama/Angst-y  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

Jadeite leaned against the tree bark, shifting until he was comfortable.

Nephrite plucked an apple from a nearby tree and rubbed it against his shirt.

"You know you don't have to do that," Jadeite said, closing his eyes.

"Habit." He took a crisp satisfying bite from the fruit. "I miss meat."

"I miss girls," Jadeite repleid, idly wondering where the maenads were. Nephrite had to pound his chest to dislodge the piece that had gotten stuck in his throat mid-laughter.

"I miss Kunzite," Zoisite said softly.

"And Endymion," Jadeite agreed, after a quick, brief silence.

"I feel so useless here!" Nephrite raged, in a mood again. "We can't do anything! We can't help Kunzite! We can't save Endymion! We don't even have our powers down here!"

"Your powers are not necessary." It infuriated Nephrite that the young man – and he would always be young as he looked it – remained calm when he himself was in a rage. His anger used to be terrifying and commanding; not it was met with placation and sardonic looks.

"It doesn't matter! I can't do anything! All we do is wait and I'm not even sure I know for what! I don't care for memories!" he prevented Helios from interrupting him when the latter was about to speak. "I want to do something!"

Helios let the other man rant.

"This is ridiculous! I used to be one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and I'm told that I'm stuck in paradise bubble? I want out, Helios. I want out now."

Helios let the tirade wash over him, knowing that this was nothing compared to what would come later.

"Are you listening to me?" Nephrite grabbed Helios arm, and reflexively, the smaller man simply reached an arm out as if pushing Nephrite, but it was more than a push, because the tall man ended up sprawled on the floor, trying to catch his breath.

Zoisite started, but Jadeite was watching Helios: he looked regretful and pained.

"Is there anything you can do, Helios? To help us speed along the process? To show us what's going on outside of here?"

Helios shook his head, that same remorseful look on his face.

"Helios," Jadeite said lowly. "We are warriors. We cannot remain sedentary." He gestured to the other two. "We need to do something. You take our powers and give us no memories in return. Everything is taken from us. We are barely shadows of what we are supposed to be."

Silently, Helios raised his head. "You have been for longer than you realize."

"You are killing us, Helios," Jadeite accused.

Softly, he replied, "You have been dying for far longer than you'll ever care to know."

* * *

end


	9. endless & faraway sky

( denial mixed with an entire truth )

* * *

Theme: The Endless & Faraway Sky (#11) – theme taken from 101_Kisses  
Genre: Angst  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

Nephrite stood abruptly. "That's not what happened."

Helios tried to calm him. "Nephrite, many were deceived-"

Nephrite grabbed the small man's robes in one hand. "That's not what happened," he said lowly, cautioningly. He threw him towards Jadeite and Zoisite and turned and exited the shrine, never questioning how easy it had been to fling away the boy who had once knocked him down with a gesture.

_The moon had been monitoring._

_Endymion had been caught associating with the moon princess._

Once outside, Nephrite looked to the left and fled right.

_Once confronted, Enydmion had confessed._

_Everyone had been furious._

He ran towards the cliff, the highest point in the land, as far a he could tell, where he would be able to overlook everything. To pick and choose where he would go next. Where he could find Kunzite and Endymion, or the man named Mamoru, and figure everything out.

_They had tried to figure things out with Endymion._

_They had met the princess and tried to see his side of it._

Nephrites's chest hurt, with a pain he had not known since he was a boy.

_He had been a boy once. Named Noboru._

_He had had a mother and a father and an affinity for stars._

His feet hit the ground hard, paining his ankles in waves that reached his calves.

_Beryl had approached them to speak of Earth's welfare and benefit._

_She had approached Noboru, as a girl, a beautiful girl, and had taken him away._

He gasped for breath and held the stitch in his side. He could see the cliff growing bigger.

_They had accepted Beryl's proposal, had agreed to take on more powers and let Metallia lead them._

_She would not let him return, and Noboru had longed for his parents and promised to be good when he got back to them._

He struggled up the incline, using his hands to help propel him upwards, grappling with rocks and dirt and clumps of grass.

_He had marched on the Moon Palace._

_He had fought against Endymion._

His breath heaved with emotion. He gasped and stumbled upon the cliff's point, where he could see all of Elysian.

_He had killed a moon maiden._

_He had liked it . . . savored it . . . and wanted more._

He fell to his knees, looking about him hopelessly.

_He had offered a room full of innocent people, _his_ people, as sacrifice to Metallia._

_He had tried to take brides and offer them to Metallia._

He touched his forehead to the ground, attempting to slow his breathing.

_He could no longer remember why he was working for Metallia in this life._

_He could no longer remember any good of this incarnation._

He straightened and spread his fingers in the soil, pressing deep trying to regain feeling with the earth.

_He could only remember wanting to inflict pain._

_And rejoicing in it._

The memories washed over Nephrite, leaving him in a sea of darkness, paining him from the inside out.

He gulped for air, dry-heaving, hurting, lost in a paradise that no longer belonged to him.

From where he knelt, there was no horizon. There was Elysian and then there were the heavens extending from him to forever. Where he was, was all there was.

And all there was, was all he used to need.

It was then that he knew the torment of being unable to touch the beauty that had made him, the glory that he had belonged to, the wonder that he had betrayed.

He mourned the lost connection, trapped in a paradise that surrounded him with blue skies, every which way he looked.

* * *

end

The italic lines look better indented, but formatting here won't allow it.


	10. flash

The pieces fell into place as slowly as time was occurring.

* * *

Theme: Flash (#49) – taken from 101_kisses  
Genre: Drama/Angst  
Rating: PG13

* * *

Jadeite paced to and fro, every note humming its way out of Zoisite's lips grating on the younger man's nerves and making him flinch with tension.

The worst part was its vague familiarity. Jadeite followed the rhythm unwillingly, anticipating the cadence of the next measure. Words danced lightly on the tip of his tongue, whirling teasingly in his mouth, perched on the verge of voice. The tip of his tongue pressed against gritted teeth, lest memory allow a lyric's escape.

He'd heard it on the bus. Those kids had been singing it, loudly, annoyingly, and with a considerable lack of consideration. Just the reminder of the last song he'd heard as a living man, as a man living on Earth made Jadeite want to strangle Zoisite with the other blonde's long girly hair.

It had been driving him crazy, was still driving him nuts, and finally Jadeite snapped.

"Shut. Up!" he hissed, twisting and breaking a stick he'd been fiddling with instead of using it to stab Zoisite in the eye.

Seconds later, after the briefest moment of perfect stunned silence, Elysion began to glow.

Not the sparkle of glitter it normally had, but like a god had turned a spotlight on them.

Everything: the waterfalls, the hills, the mountains, the temples, the trees, even Nephrite as he ran towards them yelling, "What did you do?"

Everything became awash with light. Jadeite felt his anger soothing even as his worry grew. A brief glance at the other two shitennou confirmed his personal state.

They were fading, growing translucent.

He didn't have time to ask a hopeful-faced, yet physically solid Helios what was happening, because Elysion and its winged annoyance had somehow blurred and solidified into a dark imposing room, the blank walls managing to cast shadows and hide secrets in the barrenness enclosed.

Apprehension crept into Jadeite's state of semi-consciousness. A halo of light bathed him, penetrating to the bone, but the hard unforgiving rock of a bed seeped coldness into his surprisingly substantial body. The contrast assured the blonde that he would emerge out of whatever was happening with a crick in his neck and a little worse for wear.

At the very least.

* * *

Kunzite squinted his eyes against the supernova occurring before him. 'It can't be,' he couldn't help thinking.

And yet, as he blinked through the brightness he saw it: the ginzuishou literally tear-dropping from Princess Serenity's eye.

The pieces fell into place as slowly as time was occurring.

Sailor Moon had caught Tuxedo Mask, and now Princess Serenity was holding him, crying over his prone form, weeping out crystals powerful enough to destroy the world. Sailor Moon _was_the princess, and the entire time, she'd had-

But his shield wouldn't hold with the loss of concentration. It shattered into nothingness, nearly dropping Kunzite out of the sky. He felt weakened by the sudden exposure to the light's full strength, and only Beryl's magical emergence from a sliver of darkness kept him from gravity's end.

But even as he uttered her name, in his mind's eye, he only saw three coffins standing side-by-side, full of wasted remnants waiting to be saved.

Waiting for him to save them.

Flesh crept back over the illuminated skeletal remains, filling in black eye sockets with the restful facade of dreamers. The glass coverings splintered away, as their eyes snapped open.

The darkened blue of stormy twilight. The olive green of shaded forests. The deep brown of crispy autumn leaves.

They gazed into nothingness, Kunzite's fog-tinted grey orbs lost in the past with them.

No words sounded, but intonations whispered through the darkened chasms of all their beings.

"What is this light?"

"How long have we slept?"

"What are we doing here?"

Blood pulsed strongly within their veins: their hearts renewing hard thumps, their minds reliving the past.

"We were reborn to find Endymion…"

Trance-like slumber eased away, leaving them feeling rested for the onslaught of memories that hammered upon their awakening, reverberating through the centuries.

Accusations and grievances, condemnation and betrayal, villain and friend mingled in planetary kingdoms, while barefooted senshi-princesses danced in bloodshed on the edges: fated, forbidden, forsaken.

"Our past lives…?"

"We were reborn…"

Smatterings of love and family and youth flitted briefly before their eyes.

"But before our memories returned…"

Zoisite sat straight up, the glassiness of his eyes making way for horrified clarity. Conscious though he was, he remained unaware of the leftover shards of glass that sliced straight through the uniform to embed into the flesh underneath.

The world dimmed with sorrow.

"We sold our souls."

An anguished whispered realization was all Kunzite received before his comrades' faces began melting into thick sludge, running together into bubbly bunches to glop into nothingness.

Three small stones clattered to the ground, sending sharp noises through their empty tomb, light fading as if chased away by the shame of their confession.

"They didn't make it…" Kunzite whispered to himself, distraught over everything he had lost in mere seconds. He reached for the stones, still not realizing he was not there: he could not help them.

"Now Kunzite!" Beryl ordered, her long-nailed fingers cupped as if she could summon the princess to herself with a mere twitch.

The part of Kunzite not disillusioned or confused, the part that was all instinct and survival and clear-minded, intentions be damned, the part that knew he was still in the present fighting the senshi and not in the Dark Kingdom with his long-dead shitennou – that part automatically raised a hand at Beryl's command and sent a strong blast towards the senshi, the energy powered almost purely by turmoil.

Reaching out to grab the princess, Tuxedo Mask fell into his arms instead. He backed away towards Beryl instinctively, holding the fallen man to his chest, watching the senshi deny their princess, watching the tears roll down her face.

As Beryl weaved the darkness around them, Kunzite could not help feeling a strong and fierce sense of satisfaction.

'Not this time, Lunarian.'

* * *

Helios hovered over the three prone bodies, his feathered wings fluttering with nervous energy and shifting him easily through the air. Anxiously, he waited for something to happen. They had reappeared suddenly, thrust back into the land solid and whole, but without any stirrings of breath.

Helios wasn't sure if that mattered in Elysion.

And if it did, he'd be damned if he knew any resuscitation methods for the previously dead gone dead once more.

Eventually, Jadeite's head jerked off the grass as he gasped out a mouthful of air and inhaled some more back down. Helios settled by him immediately, kneeling and running gentle hands over Jadeite's body, trying to soothe and ease him back into his Elysian state.

Jadeite gazed so deeply into Helios' sun-kissed eyes that he saw a reflection of himself, and all he could do was remember.

Fighting with Endymion. Warring with the moon. Kneeling before witches. And the devil solidified.

He stared unblinking into Helios' concern, straining to see so hard that his eyes watered.

Driving a bus straight into hell. With children. Singing a song.

He closed his eyes. A tear slipped out.

"The song that never ends."

He fell back into the earth, into a spiral of singing children and burning heels and useless minions, Nephrite's taunting and Zoisite's questions and Kunzite's silence whirling him about.

If he tried hard enough, maybe he'd forget the beautiful light and the damning darkness and the in-between that eluded him. Maybe he'd wake up without the memories of the kingdom he'd failed, of the prince he'd betrayed, of the love he'd lost.

Maybe his eyes would open and all he'd wonder was why he was in Elysion, why the winged little boy wouldn't let them go, why he was now powerless.

Maybe his biggest concern would be not knowing anything, instead of knowing everything.

Maybe it was all a dream, maybe it wasn't true, maybe it was a mistake.

Maybe, maybe, maybe…

'I didn't say it was heaven.' The reproachful words drifted into Jadeite's mind, remnants of days gone by.

Jadeite despaired.

'Then maybe it is hell.'

* * *

end


End file.
